The only guilt that 13-year-old shepherd Abdrabbuh Rafiq Abul-Kibash did a few days ago when Israeli soldiers savagely assaulted him was tending sheep in the foothills of Ein Shibli village in the northern Jordan Valley.
The child as usual left the village with his family’s sheep for the lush pastures on the mountainsides near the village where his father and local shepherds always graze cattle only to find himself in front of a horde of Jewish settlers and soldiers.
According to Abul-Kibash the settlers incited the soldiers against him claiming he trespassed on property they call the campus of their new outpost in the area.
Abul-Kibash who was admitted to hospital after suffering from injuries said that the settlers of the new outpost near the settlement of Hamra incited the soldiers to attack him.
He explained that the soldiers chased him and dragged him along the ground after one of them tripped him up near his house.
He told the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) that the soldiers kept dragging him in front of the settlers until he lost consciousness and then they left him.
Soon later his family rushed him to an infirmary in the nearby town of an-Nassariya where he received first aid before being transferred later to the Turkish Hospital in Tubas the child added.
A violent settler called Musa is the boss of the illegal settler outpost near the village of Ein Shibli and he is notorious for terrorizing and assaulting the villagers as part of his attempts to impose his control over the area with the help of the Israeli occupation army according to the child and local sources.
In this regard Aref Daraghmeh a local field researcher and activist described what happened with the child Abul-Kibash as an example of the pain and suffering the Jordan Valley villagers and shepherds go through during their search for water and pasture.
Daraghmeh affirmed that the Jordan Valley villagers are exposed to various forms of abuse and dangers such as unexploded ordnance physical attacks confiscation of livestock financial penalties and sewage and garbage from settlements and outposts.
Such military and settler practices have caused grave damage to livestock and pastures in the Jordan Valley according to the local activist.
“The settlers of outposts are extremely haughty and arrogant for example they consider that any place their cows and livestock reach is theirs and thus forbidden to approach” the activist pointed out.
“No only that but in addition to establishing settlements and outposts there is what is called the campus and perimeter of the settlement or outpost which is vast areas of mountainous slopes and land that (Palestinians) are forbidden to get near” Daraghmeh said.
According to a report by human rights group B’Tselem the Palestinian communities in the West Bank especially in the Jordan Valley are not connected to power and water networks and their average daily water consumption per capita does not exceed 20 liters — an amount much less than the minimum recommended by the World Health Organization which is 100 liters of water per capita.
These communities which are encircled by Jewish settlements and outposts are also exposed to demolition campaigns and lack educational and health institutions.
“In 1967 Israel seized control of all water resources in the newly occupied territories. To this day it retains exclusive control over all the water resources that lie between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea” B’Tselem says.
“The Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea constitute almost 30 percent of the West Bank. Nearly 65000 Palestinians and some 11000 settlers live there. Although the region serves as the Palestinians’ most significant land reserve Israel has taken over most of the land with a view to enabling its de facto annexation. Israel also endeavors to minimize Palestinian presence there: barring Palestinians from using 85 percent of the land restricting their access to water resources and keeping them from building homes. Israeli authorities are also taking measures to drive out over 50 Palestinian communities across the Jordan Valley by making their lives intolerable” according to the rights group.
